Despite the age, the article resonates with me a lot, and honestly, not just as a teacher candidate. The article mentions for example open-mindedness, responsibility and wholeheartedness. And I’ll start by saying that responsibility should just be a requirement for all adults living in society, you shouldn’t have to be a teacher to be responsible. The article explains details about what being responsible as a teacher could mean, but it all boils down to understanding that actions have consequences and being aware of that. The article mentions wholeheartedness, explains it one way and the example is honestly lacklustre. The idea should be as simple as acting on what you believe and doing it to your fullest capacity. That is just applied to anything one does, not just teaching. That is one of the things that separates mediocre from excellent, and that applies to any profession, hobby, activity, relationship, etc. The open-mindedness is an interesting one, as you don’t really need any of it if your environment is static and fits you, but it is extremely necessary on dynamic environments. In any profession you suit be able to adapt to new technologies, techniques, understandings, practices, etc., and that requires open-mindedness. And teaching not only has this evolving environment, but also you will be presented with diverse students, and that, as it is with any other social activity, requires open-mindedness in order to achieve success.
I believe this article is a good starting point. It mentions a lot of reflection, and not just about “how did the class go?” but also focusing on assumptions, purpose, and consequences. But maybe it should have given more emphasis on the critical thinking process of the reflection. It’s easy for confirmation bias to taint all reflection into confirmation, and that alone breaks the process of evolving with reflection. If everything you are doing is great and can’t be better then the reflection is not serving its purpose. And also the critical thinking of reflecting on your ideas rather than just on the actions and consequences.
One interesting thing that was pointed is that even if have no experience in teaching you have a lot of experience in the classroom on the student side. That should not be ignored. Someone stating a career as a chef has probably had a lot of experience eating, and they know what they understand as good food. The same applies to teacher candidates, we’ve been to the classroom, and we always start with understanding of the classroom and the teaching and learning process, and that is a good foundation to work on and on top of.
